


Perfectly Insidious Minds

by YourChimera



Series: Perfectly Insidious [1]
Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, Gen, Mind Link, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychic Bond, Violence, psychic link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:47:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9521438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourChimera/pseuds/YourChimera
Summary: What if Nny shared a psychic link with someone? What if that someone was a girl? And what if she was just like Nny? A homicidal maniac? And what if they both couldn't stand each other? Would they learn to get along, or would they both make plans to kill each other?You can find this on Quotev, but I don't recommend that version of this story because it's unedited and the writing quality is much worse.





	1. Prologue: Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> You will be warned: this is one hundred percent not a love story. It's about two homicidal maniacs who hate each other. There is an excessive amount of cussing and people being killed is described rather explicitly. When I originally wrote this, I tried to follow along with the canon-typical craziness of JTHM so there will be parts of the story that don't make a lot of sense at times.

_“Hayden…Hayden…Hayden…”_ The creature kept calling for the young woman from deep down in its abyss, but she threw a knife down at it in an attempt to silence it.

“Why won’t you die?” Hayden cried hysterically as she threw more knives down into the deep abyss that held the monster.

 _“You know why…”_ came the hoarse reply that Hayden was dreading.

“No, I don’t,” she spat dryly as she threw down a stick of dynamite, “Suck on this, bitch,” she hissed as she watched it drop, which gave the abyss that held her worst nightmare an eerie red glare.

There were a bright light and intense heat from the explosion of the dynamite before it shook the ground around the abyss. Hayden stood through it like it wasn’t even happening. _“You can’t kill me, Hayden…you know that.”_ The creature replied in a somewhat gentle-but-still-sinister way that made the average person shudder.

Hayden glared down at the abyss, “I can fuckin’ try to kill you,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

 _“No. You can’t kill your own self. You don’t have the guts for that!”_ The creature roared, it sounded angry, but, then again, it always sounded like that.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Hayden screamed in a ferocity that matched the creature in the abyss, and her words echoed down the abyss. The sounds of light footsteps behind her jolted her out of her enraged state.

Hayden sighed, “You shouldn’t sneak up on me, Azreiel,” she finally said as she found herself staring at her ‘friend.’ She was the embodiment of her rage. Aggression and instability pulsed through her and her eyes were always filled with hatred.

 _“I can, and you know it,”_ Azreiel said with a sickening smile as she poked Hayden’s chest with each word she said as if to place a heavy emphasis on them.

“Get the fuck away from me! I ain’t your puppet!” Hayden huffed defensively as she slightly backed up and brought her hands up to further stop any unwanted touches.

 _“Oh, but you are my little puppet, as I am the puppeteer, controlling the strings. Call me what you like, but I am just a figment of your imagination that you cannot control,”_ Azreiel hissed threateningly as she reached out to grab Hayden’s throat, but the teenager managed to dodge her attack at the last minute.

“You are not _real!_ Get that in you fucking mind! You _cannot_ control me!” Hayden yelled as loudly as she possibly could as tears began to streak down her cheek.

 _“I am_ more _real than_ you _will ever be!”_ Azreiel spat as she slapped Hayden. She looked up as she slowly brought her hand to her cheek and blinked away tears, _“Now wake up, you’re going to miss your flight,”_ Azreiel said right before she began to fade away.

“Azreiel! Don’t leave me!” Hayden cried out as she jumped into the fading mist of Azreiel before she, too, began to slowly fade away as she started to wake up from her dream.

Unseen to her, a man moved from in the shadows and stared at where the so-called Hayden had been talking to the alleged Azreiel. He didn’t know that whenever he did sleep, he never witnessed his own dreams. He assumed that the dreams he witnessed were always his own, but that’s not true, or at least it hasn’t been in the past couple of months. Instead, he had to suffer through someone else’s dreams. It wasn’t a total loss, as he was able to watch as she suffered constantly at the hands of Azreiel.

It was pathetic how she gave into the murders, how she would bend to meet the standards of Azreiel. then again, part of her reminded him of himself. How he listened to his own figments of his imagination, sometimes he, too, would bend to meet the standards of their desires.

He was about to step out of the shadows when she disappeared completely, which kicked him out of her dream and caused him to wake up. _Dammit!_ He cursed as he found himself lying on his couch. He sat up and let out a groan, his body ached like he had just been in a car accident. Screams came from his basement, which made any drowsiness of sleep vanish.

He slowly made his way down to his basement, where the screams were coming from. He was greeted with the sight of his latest victims. All of them were tied up, one person was dangling from the ceiling by her hands, another had wires all over his face and the last one was dangling from the ceiling with wires and hooks in his back, which dug deep into his skin.

“W-what do you want with us?” the girl asked weakly.

The man smirked as he relished in their fear and confusion, “Nothing but to see you dead,” he replied.

“What?” she asked as she began to cry, which did nothing but give him a headache in the process.

“Shut up!” He seethed and the room fell into an uneasy silence. Unlike outside of his home where he lacked a lot of authority, people were forced to listen to him in here. Especially when they were in the situation that his current three victims had found themselves in.

“I-we-don’t even know you!” the man with the wires all over his face exclaimed.

Their captor looked at him for a long five seconds before he finally answered him, “I am Johnny, but you may call me Nny,” he said, and then pulled out a remote and pressed the middle red button, which caused the man to burst into screams as his skin started to peel away and melt. His eyes began to pop and sizzle as the time ticked on.

Almost a minute of animalistic sounds coming from the man, his head burst, which covered everyone in blood. The girl chained up screamed at the sight of all the blood. Or, was it because a piece of his bloody skull with a chunk of hair still on it landed right on top of her head?

Nny took out a blade and was over by the guy dangling from the ceiling by hooks and wires and decapitated him with little thought, which covered the girl, yet again, in even more blood. The head bounced a little bit and rolled towards the girl before it stopped and a clear view of the inside of his neck.

By the time Nny had gotten to the girl, she was screaming and tugging on her chains as she cried hysterically. “What the fuck did I ever do to you!?” She screamed out as tears ran down her cheeks.

Nny paused for a moment for the first actual time since he began murdering them, “Let me jog your memory,” he began as he lowered his blood-covered knife, “The mall, you and your other friends, you followed and mocked me. I never talked to you. Never said a word to you and you’d already branded me as a freak. And now, I’ve branded you as filth,” he said darkly as he walked away.

“What? You can’t just fucking leave me to die down here! Let me go! Let me out! I’m sorry! I was drunk that night! C’mon! We’ve all done fucked up things when we’re drunk!” she cried as she began to tug more on her chains.

Nny was back in front of the girl in a matter of seconds with a large butcher knife, much more intimidating looking than the first knife, and, in a blink of an eye, he had hacked off her right arm. The blood squirted on the wall as she screamed in agony. “Kill me! Just fuckin’ kill me!” she somehow managed to wail through her spasms and screams. The dark red liquid kept oozing out of her arm and quickly started to make a pool of it below her feet that were dangling just inches above the ground.

Nny could barely hide his smirk that was slowly etching its way onto his face, “Doesn’t feel too good, does it?” he asked before he walked over to a table and laid his knife on it and quietly walked back upstairs, and made sure to shut the door tightly behind him.

 

Hayden’s dusty green eyes fluttered open, _it was just a dream! It was just a dream!_ She thought frantically as she sat up and looked around. But if it was a dream, why did her cheek sting, why did it feel like someone had just bitch-slapped her into next week?

“Hayden! Get up! You’re going to be late!” her mother yelled from downstairs.

Hayden winced; she hadn’t been back home for long. Once upon a time, she was a runaway who didn’t think she’d ever see ‘home’ again. She thought she had left for good, apparently not.

She threw on the first things she could find. Which turned out to be a simple white tank top with black sweatpants. She barely gave brushing her hair much thought, let alone putting on makeup.

“Hayden!” her mother yelled yet again.

“I am _coming!”_ Hayden yelled back as she grabbed her bags and closed her bedroom door.

Hayden quickly slid on her bracelets as she rushed down the stairs, mostly they said stuff like ‘I am the Ninja,’ ‘Smile Fucker, I’m the Last Thing You’ll See’ or ‘Hello, I’m a Miracle Worker, Just Not Yours.’ Then quickly slid on her necklace, it was more like a choke collar, but she didn’t care. It was black and had a dark red pendant with a peace symbol in it.

 “Greetings, Mother,” she said as she approached her mother, and suddenly felt short. It didn’t help that her mom was well over a head taller than her.

 “Get in the car, we’re going to be late,” was all her mother said as she grabbed her keys and headed out of the house.

Hayden reluctantly followed, and pulled out her CD player from her bag and untangled her headphones, so that she could listen to Nirvana on the ride to the airport. Once she got to the car, it didn’t take her long to load up her two bags and get settled in.

After several minutes of driving to the airport, Hayden realized that her mother was talking to her. She pressed pause on her CD player so that she could listen to what her mother was saying to her.

“…last time you slept? You look like a damn zombie!” her mother exclaimed as she glanced at her daughter with worried brown eyes.

Hayden almost didn’t realize she was waiting for her to answer her, “Oh, uh, I don’t know, I think last night…” she replied, but she honestly couldn’t remember the last time she had a real sleep. _Maybe it was…no. it couldn’t have been then. Maybe it was Tuesday?_ Hayden pondered on the last time she had really went to sleep.

“And what’s with the stuff all over your face? It looks terrible! Why the hell would you do that?” Hayden’s mom continued to complain, picking out her daughter’s major and minor flaws. It took her a moment to realize that she had never taken off her makeup from last and it had smudged all over her face. _I wonder if I look like a raccoon..._

With a sigh, Hayden pressed play on her CD player, which effectively blocked out her mother. She was so used to doing this; it had lost all the fun it had once held.

She closed her eyes, she was so, so tired. She couldn’t fight it anymore. She had to give in.  She would lose her mind if she didn’t…She needed sleep badly. She didn’t care if that meant facing Azreiel and Mayzel. Mayzel she could stand, Azreiel, well, not so much.

 

 _“Hayden!”_ A friendly voice cried as Hayden found herself in a dark forest that was only lit by the comically large full moon.

“M-Mayzel?” Hayden stuttered as she called out to her favorite figment of her imagination. She knew with certainty what Azreiel was to her, but she couldn’t figure out what Mayzel represented in her, in all honesty.

 _“It’s alright, I’m here, you don’t need to worry, Azreiel doesn’t come here,”_ Mayzel added in a child-like tone. She sounded like a three-year-old trying to comfort their older sibling.

“I guess that’s good…” Hayden murmured as she took the time to prepare herself for what Mayzel would have in mind for her today.

 _“You look exhausted, why don’t you sleep more?”_ Mayzel asked innocently as she tilted her head to one side and stared curiously up at Hayden, her bright green eyes glimmered in the moonlight. The moonlight also reflected off of Mayzel’s long, wavy scarlet-red hair, which gave her a halo appearance. _Ironic._ Hayden thought as she remembered how often Mayzel would ask for her to feed the monster in the abyss with series of killing sprees.

“I am sleeping, Mayzel,” Hayden said with a sigh, and she suddenly felt someone watching her.

 _“Oh, right. I forget sometimes…”_ Mayzel said calmly before she gave a small nervous laugh. As soon as she stopped laughing, she glanced behind her back, almost as if she were looking for someone.

“Is Azreiel watching us?” Hayden asked, unable to hide the fear that was embedded in her voice.

Mayzel thought for a second and then narrowed her eyes at an object in the shadows behind Hayden, _“No, not Azreiel,”_ she replied uncharacteristically darkly.

Hayden froze, she hadn’t technically said no one was watching them, she just said not Azreiel _. So, then what is she staring at?_ Hayden thought as she slowly turned around, only to see nothing. _Obviously, it wasn't anything if Mayzel was staring at it so intensely._

 _“We should go, Hayden,”_ Mayzel said in her usual cheerful tone as she snapped out of the daze she had seemed to be in and gave a slow twirl.

“What? Why? I just got here! Who is watching us, Mayzel?” Hayden asked as her voice rose with both fear and anger.

 _“No one,”_ Mayzel said too quickly, which resulted in the teenager to narrow her eyes in suspicion.

Just like that, Hayden’s anger flared up. She didn’t like the secrets that her ‘friend’ had been going out of her way to hide from her. “Tell me!” she snapped.

 _“Him,”_ was all Mayzel said before she vanished in a silvery mist and left Hayden all alone.

“Good riddance,” Hayden grumbled bitterly as she let a small ‘hmph’ and turned away from where Mayzel had once been.

“So, wait, you have two of them?” a man asked as he slowly walked out of the shadows and into the small clearing where Hayden stood.

With a small gasp, Hayden turned around and pulled out a blade she always carried in her coat, “Who are you?” she hissed as she raised it up near him. _Him._ Mayzel’s words flashed through her mind. _This has to be him._ Anger coursed through her body. _How dare he invade the privacy of my mind._

The man didn’t seem bothered that she was pissed off and held a knife that was permanently stained red from blood, “I should be asking you that question,” he said as he walked closer to her.

“D-don’t come near me!” Hayden cried out defensively as she pointed the knife at him and put one foot a step back. She watched him make his way closer and closer. If he even thought about trying to touch her, he was going to be sorry.

“Who are you?” he asked carefully as he stood in front of the knife that Hayden held firmly in her right hand. Hayden had once read that people tend to dream of people they had seen in real life, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember running into him at any point of her life.

“I asked you first,” Hayden hissed through clenched teeth. The knife was still raised and pointed in his direction. The strange man was close enough to her that the knife almost poked him, not that he showed signs of caring about.

With a sigh, the man replied, “I am Johnny C., but you may call my Nny.”

Hayden relaxed a little, but didn’t lower her knife, “What the fuck are you doing in my dream? Why would I dream of you! This is my nightmare! Not yours! Go get your own!” She finally yelled once she processed what was happening to her.

Nny tilted his head to one side and scrunched up his brows in confusion, “Of course this is my nightmare, I watch as you suffer, and you reflect me,” he replied.

Hayden looked appalled at what he had just said, “You think _I_ represent _you_? What the fuck! What. The. _Fuck!_ ” she exclaimed. “You can’t just barge into someone else’s dream and start trying to say that they don’t exist! Do you know how _fucked up_ that really is?” she harshly asked him as she waved her knife around while she ranted.

“Hayden…?” Nny asked as he pronounced it slowly, almost as if it were a foreign name.

“Who the _fuck_ told you my name?” She screeched as she stopped mid-rant. Did she hear him correctly? Did he really just say her name? _Had to be Walt._ Her mind drifted off to that annoying bastard who wouldn’t leave her house. “Was it the fuckin’ squirrel?” Hayden yelled in a fast, manic-level angry pace.

Nny looked up at Hayden with a blank expression, “Squirrels don’t talk,” he simply replied. A part of him was kind of intrigued with Hayden, and another part just wanted to wake up and leave now.

“Never say that!” Hayden hissed, still furious that he knew her name. After a silent debate, she began to lax on keeping her knife pointed at him, but she still gripped it tightly in her hand.

“Who are you, really?” Nny asked curiously as Hayden slowly lowered her knife.

“You know my name and you’re fucking asking me who the fuck am I?!” Hayden asked and she raised her knife back up, ready to slash at him. _This guy is seriously messed up._ She reasoned on the fact that he must not be well. _Most likely short-term memory loss or something like that._

Nny thought for a second and then nodded, “Yeah, so who are you? Are you really real?” he asked. Out of all the times he saw her in dreams, he didn’t even consider the possibility of sharing dreams with another person in some bizarre, fucked up way.

“I am Hayden Williams, and yeah, I’m real,” she replied casually and then let out a weary hum as she closed her eyes and the scene changed from a forest to a meadow. In the meadow, a black-haired woman known as Azreiel stood behind Nny with a very displeased look etched onto her face.

 _“What is he doing here Hayden? Your mind is not for his to see, make him leave!”_ She exclaimed, she looked utterly terrified at seeing her and Nny facing each other.

“You can’t tell me who can and can’t see my mind. If he wants to see my hell hole of a mind then let him,” Hayden muttered darkly as she turned around and stared up at the sun. In her dreams, she could stare at it without having to suffer the normal consequences she would have in the waking world.

 _“Don’t be like that, Hayden,”_ Mayzel said as she appeared out of a mist. Her sudden appearance through both Hayden and Azreiel off for a moment. They all believed that they couldn’t exist in the same space at the same time. Nny stuffed his hands into his pockets as he watched the possible shit storm unfold all because he and Hayden were sharing dreams.

 _“Shut up, Mayzel! This is my fight! Go back to wherever the hell you came from!”_ Azreiel yelled at the other as soon as she recollected her ability to think properly.

 _“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child! We’re the same age!”_ Mayzel yelled at her sister as she crossed her arms over her chest and let out a small ‘hmph’ and turned her nose away from her.

 _“I was created first you fucked up son of a bitch!”_ Azreiel hissed as she tugged on her strands of hair. Hayden cringed at their voices simultaneously ringing in her head. She could handle them both separately, but both at once?

 _“That can’t be true, you idiot! We were created_ at the same time!” Mayzel yelled back. Hayden glanced at Nny and she could hardly hide the relief that she wasn’t the only who looked like they were going through the worst torture imaginable.

“Hey! Do us all a favor and _shut up!_ ” Hayden yelled as she forced herself between Azreiel and Mayzel. In the process of wriggling between them, she had pulled out two knives and gripped them tightly in both hands. “You two are giving me a fucking headache in my _own dream_!” she hissed as she pointed two blades at the arguing sisters.

Mayzel instantly fell quiet and her form even flickered in fear, but Azreiel just smirked and gave Hayden a ‘what can you do’ smile, _“You can’t kill me, Hayden.”_

They quickly disappeared after that and left Hayden alone with Nny once again, “Uh…sorry about that?” Hayden said, but it came out more like a question.

Nny just shrugged, it wasn’t necessarily her fault that her ‘friends’ decided then would be a good time to manifest in the same area. After that incident, though, he felt like he wanted to be anywhere but here, he wanted to wake up. Escape this fantasy that felt all too similar to his actual life.

“If you’re real and I am real, how come we share the same dreams?” Hayden asked the million-dollar question after an awkward silence had enveloped the two of them.

Nny shrugged, “I don’t know. I don’t even know why I’m sleeping, I just keep passing out, all at inconvenient times by the way,” he hissed the last part as he shot daggers at Hayden with his eyes. Hayden wasn’t fazed by the looks he sent her, but the whole situation made her feel uncomfortable.

Hayden looked at the ground and rubbed her arm, “Sleeping is okay, just as long as its normal dreams you get and not a nightmare you have to repeat…” she said quietly.

Nny arched an eyebrow at her depressing words, “Is that your final statement?” he asked.

“This dream is over,” Hayden said as she looked up, and she quickly vanished shortly after she said that.

“Dammit!” Nny cursed just before he was thrown back out of Hayden’s mind and back into reality.


	2. Chapter One: Taco Chaos

Hayden slowly opened her eyes and found she had woken up in a room with light pinkish-purple walls. She suppressed a shudder as she tore her eyes from the hideous paint decorating the walls and tried to focus on anything else. She hated pink and purple. She hated it with a burning passion. As a child, those were the main colors her mom would make her wear and she grew to have a hatred for the colors because of that.

She groggily got up out of bed, she must have slept through the whole plane ride and drive to her aunts’ house, but how the hell? How did she end up here without being woken up? She was a fucking light ass sleeper!

Hayden slowly opened her door cautiously, she didn’t have a clue what time it was, just that it was dark outside and she wanted a fuckin taco. She quickly closed it after she peeked out of her room and noticed that the coast was clear. She went to the rocking chair and grabbed her black coat that was a little too big for her and her big purse. She liked her purse because it easily hid all of her weapons – _and they somehow made it through! Yes!_ Hayden felt like leaping for joy at that very moment, but she managed to settle for a happy skip that lasted only four skips.

With a quick glance at the clock on her wall – it was a quarter after midnight – and slid open her window so that she could jump down onto the ground. She was glad she was on the first floor and not the second, it would have been a bit harder to escape. Not that she wasn’t willing to jump from a second story window.

“Where are we going, Hayden?” Mayzel asked with a broad, innocent smile once Hayden had made it to the ground and was far away enough to talk without having to worry about accidentally waking up her aunts.

“We?” Hayden could barely mask her scoff. “There is no we! Just me, myself, and I! Now go away! Go back to the room!” Hayden hissed as she stormed out from behind the bushes. Had she been thinking clearer, she would have asked how her ‘friend’ was able to appear outside of her dreams. They only ever visited her in her dreams, never once did they visit her in the real world.

“If you say so…” Mayzel said, she sounded slightly hurt, but she quickly vanished before Hayden could worry too much about it.

Hayden smiled happily to herself and began walking around; it had been years since she was last in California. It was nice to see the changes in California – even the ugly changes, like the hobo that had peed himself and was passed out on the sidewalk.

“Disgusting,” she hissed as she leaped over him and continued with her search for a taco place.

After walking around for what Hayden believed to be hours it seemed that nowhere was open. She paused for a moment and looked at her watch – it was only one o’clock in the morning. She face-palmed, most restaurants closed at ten, there was no way in-

Hayden stopped in mid-thought as she found herself in front of a taco place. She smiled as she walked up to the fast-food Mexican restaurant and pushed open the doors and dramatically walked in. “Bloody hell! I finally found you, Nick!” she exclaimed randomly in a horrible British accent, which earned her a bunch of zombie-like stares from a group of exhausted people eating their meals peacefully.

Hayden sighed before she calmly strolled up to the counter, “I’d like one taco, madam,” she said coolly as she smiled and tilted her head to the right.

“We are closed, we just stopped selling tacos five minutes ago,” the small, chubby woman said with a blank expression as she pointed to the sign on the door that said when they’re open and closed.

Hayden frowned, “It’s just one taco! Can’t you give me a taco? I’ll pay double!” she cried, she was really desperate for a taco at the moment for some reason.

“We are closed, come back tomorrow,” the woman said in response as she turned around to begin her work cleaning up in the back.

Hayden’s left eye twitched in disgust before she slowly pulled out a jagged blade and jumped the woman. As soon as she had her pinned down against the floor, she repeatedly stabbed her, “I want a fucking taco! Give me a fuckin’ taco, bitch!” she yelled before she muttered “Forget it, the moment is ruined,” and then slit her throat. She stood up and charged at the group of horrified people clustered in their corner, too terrified to move or call for help.

“You die tonight,” Hayden hissed as she attacked the nearest person, a grown man almost six feet tall and well-developed muscles. She pinned him to the ground and repeatedly stabbed him with a surprisingly metal fork she found on a table with great ease before she plucked the next idiot in the corner.

“I just wanted a taco!” Hayden yelled in pure rage as she killed the last one, a young blonde who could barely stand a chance.

Hayden leaped over the counter and searched the kitchen for a taco, she later walked out with a taco in her hand and a smile on her face, and she didn’t seem bothered that her clothes were stained with blood and meat sauce. She took a bite of her taco as she decided to take a shortcut down the alley.

As she made another turn, she had a felt like someone was stalking her, so, out of fear, she pulled her black hoodie up so nobody would see her face as easily. “Who’s there?” Hayden called as she turned around, she didn’t care if her stalker saw her bloody clothes, she was hoping they saw the blood and backed off.

But they didn’t, the footsteps grew louder, heavier, and faster. “Where are you?” Hayden hissed as she pulled out the bloody, jagged knife that she had used earlier and turned around again.

“Little girls shouldn’t play with those playthings,” a mocking voice came from behind her as she was shocked by a taser, and she let out an excruciating scream of pain as she blacked out.

She collapsed on the ground, she was not going to sleep. She didn’t want to see Nny, she didn’t want to see and hear her voices, but sleep took over and she slowly closed her eyes.

 

Hayden groggily opened her eyes and shuddered, it was creepy in the room she was in. “Where the hell am I…?” she mumbled to herself as she slowly began to try to move her limbs to no avail, someone had chained her down.

“You’re in my basement,” a man said. She squinted her eyes in disbelief, he sounded all too familiar for her liking.

“What the hell?” She growled in shock. “Nny! How the fuck?” Hayden screamed in confusion as she began to tug on her chains more forcibly.

Nny tilted his head to the side in confusion, “Who the fuck told you my name? Was it the dog?” he yelled as he pointed her own knife at her.

Hayden stared at him like he made no sense and arched an eyebrow, “Dogs don’t talk,” she said flatly as she loosely repeated what he had told her earlier to him.

Nny narrowed his eyes at Hayden, “Yes, well…shut up!” he exclaimed as he waved her knife around in the air and let out a small huff of air.

“You don’t like being corrected?” Hayden asked innocently, “You sure didn’t care about correcting me in my dream,” she scoffed as she rolled her eyes at him. _What a fucking idiot. Does he seriously not recognize me?_

“Hayden?” Nny asked in confusion. “I thought you were just…” he said, but he let his voice trail on as he backed up slightly in shock.

“And I didn’t give a fuck about your existence so I guess we’re even now that you electrocuted me with your taser and trapped me in your dungeon of fun and doom,” Hayden said a bit dismissively as she slipped her skinny hands out of the chains.

“Fun and doom…I like that,” Nny said as he slowly smiled, but it was faint.

“I’d like my stuff, sir,” Hayden said as she held her hand out for her purse.

Nny looked at her hand and narrowed his eyes, “How did you get free?” he asked in surprise before he pointed her knife at her. He was a bit lost for words, that’s never happened to him before.

“I’m just that fucking awesome,” Hayden said in response as she gave two thumbs up and smiled brightly before she regained her composure and looked up at him for her belongings.

“Now I have to kill you!” Nny yelled in anger as he gripped the knife tighter.

“Killing is _so_ overrated!” Hayden exclaimed as she mocked a prissy cheerleader’s voice.

Nny successfully fought  the smirk that was itching to make an appearance on his face, but he couldn’t help but say, “But yet you took pleasure in killing for a taco.”

“I love my tacos, stand between me and my tacos and I’ll slit your pathetic throat,” Hayden hissed defensively as she reached for her bag, but she was kicked away from it by Nny’s hard boot. She landed across the room with a small ‘oomph.’ She winced in pain she stood up, her legs felt like Jell-O, but she ignored the pain, “That’s not very nice,” she hissed.

“I don’t care,” Nny growled as he watched her slowly make her way closer toward him.

“I just want my purse, I promise I won’t let you enter my dreams again if you let me live,” Hayden said as she pulled down her black hoodie, allowing Nny to get a better look at her face.

His right eye twitched as he recognized the dirty blonde teenager from his dreams. “You,” he whispered in bewilderment. It hadn’t been that long since they met in their dreams, and now they were meeting in real life? It hadn’t even been a week since the last dream!

“Me,” Hayden clarified in a much more confident voice than what Nny had as she stood in front of.

“No!” Nny cried as he suddenly began to back away quickly. He immediately started to treat her like she was acid, he wanted nothing to do with her. “Get away! Leave! Leave!” he repeated as he pointed to the exit.

Hayden rolled her eyes at his dramatic behavior, “Just give me the purse and I’ll leave!” she snapped, she was rapidly losing her patience to the strange man.

“Take it!” Nny hissed as he tossed the bulky purse at Hayden, and with that, she picked up her purse and walked up the stairs with a bounce in her step and a cheerful smile plastered on her face. As soon as she made it out of Nny’s house, she found herself face to face with a young boy with black hair.

“Squee,” he said as he saw a bloody, albeit the blood had long since dried, Hayden looming over him.

“My, my, what have we here?” Hayden asked innocently as she picked him up off of his tricycle. “You are just adorable!” she squealed as she waved him around as if he were a rag doll.

He just stared at Hayden and forced himself to speak, “Th-thank y-y-you,” he stuttered and his face started to turn a deep shade of red.

She placed the young boy back down onto his feet again and then put her hands on her hips and looked into the distance, “No need to thank me, I’m just your average, everyday teenager,” she said in a mock brave voice.

“Squee,” he repeated again as his eyes grew wide. He couldn’t help but wonder if all teenagers were like her.

“You say that a lot. Why are you so scared? I am going to call you Squee, little child!” Hayden declared as she started to pet his hair. Throughout the whole ordeal with Squee, she hadn’t yet realized that Nny had been watching the pair with a scolding look across his face.

“Get. Away. From. Him,” Nny growled as he marched closer to the pair.

Hayden picked Squee back up and turned around to face Nny, “You mean Squee? Isn’t he the cutest littlest thing you ever saw?” she said with a smile as she held him out for Nny to get a better look at.

“Put Squee down. _Now!”_ Nny yelled as he pointed a the ground.

Hayden sighed and sat Squee down gently, “I think Nny is a party pooper, ruining our fun,” she muttered to Squee.

Squee giggled lightly – partially from nerves, and partially from what she had said – as he raced behind Nny, “Squee…” he whispered.

“Leave,” Nny hissed as he placed a hand protectively in front of Squee. “I never want to see you again. You’re lucky I’m not going to teach you a lesson, but if I ever-”

“What?” Hayden interrupted him, “Kill me? Guess what ‘Nny,’ you’ll be doing me a fuckin’ favor!” she spat at him, and then walked away, leaving a scared Squee and a pissed off Nny.

 

“Hayden! Where have you been?” Christina, Hayden’s aunt, yelled as she walked in the house. Luckily, her black coat covered all of the bloody blood stains on her clothes, which she was grateful for. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure how her aunts would react to finding out to what she had done. _Most likely it won’t be a happy reaction._

“I went out for breakfast…” Hayden lied as she began to slowly take her boots off.

“At three in the afternoon?” Whitney asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at her niece. _Damn, why is everyone else in this family so tall? I’m starting to think I’m adopted._

“No, eleven in the morning, then I got lost and yadda yadda yadda I made my way home!” Hayden explained as she skipped everything that she had allegedly done in the morning.

“I want you to go to your room and stay there until I say so, young lady!” Whitney said as she pointed down the hall in the general direction of her room.

Hayden shrugged as she took a sip of her Cherry FizWiz that she had bought on the way home and walked to her room.

“Lord, that child will be the death of me…” Hayden heard one of her aunts’ murmur as she closed her bedroom door and let out an exhausted sigh. _Who knows? I just might_ _be…_ she silently agreed.

She looked at her bed disgustedly. There was no way in hell she was going to sleep again! Not if that fucking bitch was sharing her dreams. “I will never sleep again,” she silently vowed. She grabbed her bed and flipped it over and threw the sheets, blankets, and pillows all around the room. Once she had finished her task, she let out a sigh of frustration as she sat down in front of her computer and turned it on.

She had little to say, little to write about. But she had something to tell the world. _One day, one day my work will be published._ Hayden thought hopefully as the computer’s familiar hum kicked on and she went through her files and uploaded Trapped in the Circle. It was her little journal, she wrote down everything she experienced and turned it into a horror novel.

After Hayden had been typing for several hours, she finally gave up and cut off her computer and settled in front of her TV. She wished that she had another Cherry FizWiz since she had finished her last one two and a half hours ago.

“…eight people murdered at the local taco place…” A news reporter said, which caused Hayden to turn it off. She didn’t to hear any more of her previous events last night. _I guess I can get creative, it’s not like I’ll be sleeping for a long time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for it being late, my wifi went out a week or so ago and just reset! I'll resume posting on Mondays as I originally had planned. Also, anyone psyched about Samurai Jack? I can't wait<3 *-*


	3. Wake Up

“And why do I have to come with you? It’s not like I have to watch this stupid brat!” Hayden exclaimed harshly as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. Her cousin, Samantha, pulled out of the driveway and began driving to their destination that was unknown to her. Samantha had managed to somehow drag her along, much to her displeasure.

“He’s not a brat, Hayden, he’s an angel,” Samantha said as she defended the mystery child Hayden had yet to figure out who he was. She didn’t want to go with her, but her aunts made her get out of the house for some time and, to be honest, Azreiel and Mayzel were beginning to annoy her with their constant pestering of if she ran into _him_ again. As if she would ever purposefully seek him out.

“Yeah, sure, brat in disguise,” Hayden grumbled bitterly as she looked out her window and watched as the colors blend together into a giant ugly mess. _Anything would be better than having to watch some brat._ She didn’t bother hiding her annoyance over the whole situation. If she was going to be miserable, then so was everyone else.

“Whatever, Hayden,” Samantha murmured as she turned up her radio. The peaceful music made it hard for Hayden to concentrate, add that on top of her sleep deprivation and she was passed out before she could realize what was happening.

Hayden was jolted out of her daydream as Samantha shook her awake, “What the fudge knuckles!?” she cried out as she grabbed the arm rests on the seat tightly and breathed deeply. he looked around wildly before she realized where she actually was and then began to calm down.

“We’re here, Hayden,” Samantha said gently as she stared at her cousin with worry. She had only meant to wake her up, not almost give her a heart attack.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Hayden snapped at her cousin before she got out of the car. _Oh god, not this guy again!_ She thought as she recognized the house next door. Dread instantly rushed through her body, she didn’t have it in her to deal with him today.

Their destination was Johnny’s next door neighbor, and that could only mean that Squee was most likely the little boy next door that Samantha babysat. _Well, aren’t I the lucky one? Just fuckin’ grand, Hayden._

“What are you staring at?” Samantha asked as she followed Hayden’s gaze toward Nny’s house. “Oh, him.” She let out a confused hum. Her face was scrunched up slightly, “Not much is known about him, except that he lives alone and is pretty much a creep,” she explained and then turned around to head inside the house.

Hayden couldn’t resist grinning at her cousin’s words as she grabbed her bag out of the car before she walked inside the house. It was pretty much empty except for a little boy holding a stuffed bear in the middle of an empty, dark hallway.

_Damn! It_ is _him!_ Hayden thought bitterly as she came face to face with Squee, or really waist to face with the much smaller boy, “Hello, Squee,” she said coldly as she narrowed her eyes at him. She no longer favored the boy as she had when they had first met. _I now know where your true allegiance stands in this war, traitor._

_“We should kill him, he isn’t worthy of your presence,”_ Mayzel said in a sing-song voice as she placed her hands on Squee’s shoulders and lowered down so that she was almost at his height. _“One snap and one problem down.”_

“I don’t want to kill him, Mayzel,” Hayden rolled her eyes. She was oblivious to the fact that she was the only one who could see her. “Now, go back home. We can talk later, but right now I want to do other things,” she said as she waved her ‘friend’ away. She barely paid attention to Mayzel leaving because Squee began to shuffle around uncomfortably in front of her.

“H-hello…” he said shyly as he slowly backed away from her. He was used to Nny’s antics, but Hayden was still very new to him and he had no idea if she would harm him or not.

“No need to be afraid of me, Squee,” Hayden said, and then the realization that she had never told him her name sunk in. “Did I ever tell you my name?” she asked and Squee shook his head, “Well, Squee, I am Hayden Williams,” she introduced herself with a broad smile.

“Todd,” Squee said as he smiled back. Maybe Hayden wouldn’t be so bad, after all?

“Todd?” Hayden asked as she arched an eyebrow. “Squee suits you much better,” she said before glanced behind her. _Where’s Samantha…?_ She wondered as she realized Samantha was nowhere to be found.

“Nny thinks so, too…” Squee said as he looked down at his feet and hugged his teddy bear close to his chest. He just had to stay calm, she won’t hurt him. At least, he hoped that Hayden wouldn’t hurt him.

“Nny,” Hayden hissed. “I have a lot to say about that guy, but my mom told me that if I have nothing nice to say, then I shouldn’t speak at all,” she admitted with a sigh. Granted, that hadn’t stopped her before but it just felt wrong to curse in front of an innocent child.

Squee swallowed nervously, “Y-yes, that’s what my mommy says, also,” he squeaked in agreement.

“Ah… Interesting. Why do you stick around Nny?” Hayden asked as she changed the subject. She was truly curious as to why a kid like him would hang out with a guy like him. _What sorcery is at work here?_ “A guy like that could, uh…how should I put this” she paused for a moment so that she could figure out how she wanted to phrase it, “he could warp your mind,” she finally settled on as she studied the young child.

“Can we play a game?” Squee asked. He hoped his attempt to change the attention from him and onto a board game would work. He didn’t really know how he could explain to her that it wasn’t him that chose to hang around Nny, but rather the other way around. He felt as if she would outright refuse to believe that and call him a liar.

“Depends on what it is,” Hayden commented after a slight pause, “What game do you have in mind?” she asked as she looked back down at him. _This isn’t what I had in mind about games._ She resisted the urge to let out a huff of air.

“Sorry,” Squee said and Hayden couldn’t tell if he meant the game or was simply apologizing for some reason unknown to her. _To hell with this._ She decided she’d just wing it. What’s the worst that could happen if she guessed wrong?

“Sorry? Like that game?” Hayden asked as she arched an eyebrow. _Now that’s a game I haven’t played in a while._

Squee nodded sheepishly and rushed into a room, but he beckoned for Hayden to follow him before he dashed off. “C’mon, Hayden, let’s play!” he said excitedly. He hadn’t had a willing person to play with him in a long time that wasn’t Samantha.

Hayden sighed dramatically, “If we must…” she finally said as she began to drag her feet into the room that Squee had disappeared into.

“R-really?” Squee stammered, he hadn’t expected for her to actually agree. “Samantha should play, too!” he exclaimed, and then he looked around for his babysitter. He was suddenly aware of the fact that Samantha wasn’t with them and that he hadn’t seen her at all since she had hollered to tell him that she was here. “W-where’s Samantha?” he squeaked as he clutched Shmee tightly.

“She’s probably making us a snack,” Hayden suggested with a small shrug as she saw a figure pull out what she could only assume was the board game Squee wanted to play. “Hey, there she is!” She exclaimed with a smile, but it soon faded into a scowl as she recognized the figure as Nny, rather than her cousin.

Nny bit back a yell in surprise as he dropped the board game, he clenched his fists up and narrowed his eyes at Hayden. She wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or what that he managed to resist the urge of slicing into her flesh then and there. “What are you doing here?” he struggled to ask in an even tone.

“Helping Samantha babysit,” Hayden responded casually as she plopped herself down on a couch.

Nny placed his hand on his pocket, he didn’t hide the fact that he was reaching for a knife to most likely inflict harm on Hayden, but before he could even pull it out, Squee immediately screamed in fear, “No! No, Nny! Please don’t hurt her, Nny! She’s my friend!” he exclaimed as he tackled Hayden in a hug.

Nny let out a sigh of defeat as he removed his hand from his pocket but still gave Hayden a death glare. “So, how ‘bout we play some Sorry?” Hayden asked enthusiastically as she clasped her hands together, already forgetting about what had just happened.

“I’d rather-”

“Yes!” Squee exclaimed with a smile as he dashed over and picked up the board game and brought it to the coffee table that was in front of the couch Hayden was sitting on. Once he grabbed a pillow off the couch, he sat down on the floor and slowly began to set the game up.

Hayden sat down on the floor across from Squee and helped him set it up, while Nny watched them with bored eyes as he sat between the two on the side of the coffee table that faced the door out of the room. “What color are you?” Hayden asked him as she started to pull the red ones from the box.

“Red,” Nny said, but quickly changed it to blue when he saw she was already setting hers up with red. He didn’t want to upset Squee with another quarrel with her.

“Where’s my cousin?” Hayden asked Squee as she gave him a small glance as she handed him her half of the deck of cards that she had helped shuffle up.

“She usually cleans up the house…” Squee said quietly as he slid the cards back together into one larger deck before he sat it in the middle of the board.

“Ah, well, let’s play Sorry before I feel like playing something else,” Hayden said as she sat her stack on top of Squee’s and started the game off.

“Sorry, I made lunch,” Samantha said as she walked into the room, she appeared oblivious to Nny’s appearance. _Maybe he’s a regular guest here when she babysits?_

“Okay…? And I should care because…?” Hayden asked slowly as she turned to look at her cousin who had just entered the room with food.

“Thanks, Samantha!” Squee squeaked before he began to nibble on a cracker, suddenly becoming oblivious to Hayden and Nny.

“I knew she was going to pass out. Ma told me she wasn’t getting some proper sleep. I’ll sit her plate right beside her,” Samantha said. Hayden arched a brow at her cousin, but held her hands out, thinking that she was just joking. Her eyes widened in shock when Sam went right through her hands and sat the plate right beside her.

“What the fuck,” Hayden breathed out as she turned to Nny and gave him her best ‘are-you-seeing-this-shit’ look.

Nny had been to absorbed in waving his hand in front of Squee in an attempt to figure out what was happening that he didn’t hear or see what had just happened with Hayden and Samantha. Hayden, on the other hand, new exactly what was going on and wanted to rip her hair out. She had figured what was going on when she woke up suddenly in her cousin’s car, but she didn’t want to believe it.

They were back in a dream, more like a nightmare to Hayden, but she enjoyed watching Nny suffer for a few minutes before he realized what had happened and he turned to look at her with a deadpan expression. “Have you not realized what this is, Nny?” Hayden smirked. As much as she enjoyed witnessing her enemy suffer for those too few minutes, she knew it had to end.

Nny looked up, “You’re dreaming again, aren’t you?” he asked as he sulked a little bit, if she was dreaming, he was dreaming. “You have very strange sleeping habits,” he growled in anger.

“I sleep whenever I want,” Hayden shot back in response as she crossed her arms over her chest and tossed him an equally angry look.

“Well, I don’t want sleep!” Nny exclaimed. This time he was more aware and noticed the background and everything else but Hayden slowly faded away and was replaced by a clearing. In the clearing was a never-ending abyss. The former sunny weather outside Squee’s house had been replaced by a foggy drizzle. The type of weather that made everyone feel sluggish and miserable.

“Not my fault!” Hayden yelled back, she hadn’t yet noticed the newly formed background.

“Strange sleeping habits equals strange dreams,” Nny mumbled mostly to himself. He became more curious with the abyss and decided to stand up and investigate it.

“No!” Hayden cried out in alarm as she leaped toward Nny and pushed him away from it before he could hear the monster inside. “Do. Not. Look. In. The. Abyss!” She yelled at him. Fear paled her to a deathly white. Just thinking about the monster that always tormented her was enough to make her want to hide.

“What’s down there?” Nny asked curiously as he still tried to get a peek in the abyss that Hayden was set on hiding from him.

“We all have our demons… That’s my demon.” Hayden replied as she was still pushing him away from the abyss.

“I thought those girls were…” Nny said as he drifted off and looked around for them.

“No, they obey to that… Wait! Why am I telling you this?!” Hayden exclaimed before she shook her head madly. “Forget it, forget all you see in my hell, after all, it’s only a dream,” She tried to reason with herself as she narrowed her eyes at Nny.

“Exactly why it’s called hell,” Nny said, but Hayden didn’t appear to hear him.

“What is your demon?” Hayden asked as she eyed Nny suspiciously. She looked almost as if the answer would skin her alive.

“A monster behind a wall,” Nny replied after he judged the situation, he may be asleep, but it wasn’t really her fault that this was happening.

“Always masked by a shadow, something you can’t see, but they have your life pinned out… Almost like they’re the puppeteer and we’re simply the puppet, putting up a show for it,” Hayden murmured quietly, and her eyes glazed as she slipped into a slight fantasy that Nny didn’t have access to.

“Um, Hayden?” Nny asked as he gave her a slightly worried glance. What if she decided to die in her sleep, would he wake up? Would his death be murder or suicide?

“What?” She asked as the light returned to her hazel eyes and she turned her attention back to him.

“What was that?” Nny asked as he referred to her outburst just moments before.

Hayden simply shook her head, “Nowhere is safe to repeat that again, maybe in a fantasy where we’re both free from our demons, but not here. They’ll hear,” she whispered quietly.

“Could you wake up and tell me?” Nny asked, he not-so-secretly wanted to be free from her dream.

“No!” Hayden gasped in shock. _Has he lost his mind?_ She turned away from him for a moment so that she could rethink why she hadn’t killed him yet before she let out a deep breath and turned back around to face him.

“Why not?” Nny almost yelled. It was taking a lot for him to control himself.

“How do I know you won’t try to kill me?” Hayden accused as she pointed a finger at him.

“How do I know _you_ won’t try to kill _me?”_ Nny asked Hayden, and this time he did yell.

“Touché,” Hayden grumbled, she never trusted him, never really liked him. Not since he invaded her personal space…her dreams. She could tell the feeling was mutual at times.

“So you won’t wake up but you want me gone! The only way I’ll be able to leave is if you wake up!” Nny yelled exasperatedly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know how to wake up! I just wake up whenever…I don’t know!” Hayden exclaimed, she let out a groan and buried her hands in her face. She was slightly embarrassed that she had no idea how to wake up, but she masked it with her anger _._

Nny sighed and tried to figure out if what he planned to do would work or not. If it did, they would wake up. If not, he would have to face Hayden’s anger…not that he found her intimidating, he just didn’t know what she could do to him since this was just a dream, granted they both shared the dream.

After he contemplated on what he wanted to do – normally he wouldn’t think so much about this but she was a different case – he made up his mind. Nny raised his hand quickly and slapped her as hard as he could.

Hayden let out a surprised yelp before she slugged Nny with the same amount of intensity he had done to her, “What the fuck?” she yelled before kicked him in the ribs.

Nny coughed up blood, but because it was just a dream, he didn’t feel any pain…but then why was he slowly beginning to feel the numbness of pain start to seep into his body? His plan had worked, and Hayden was slowly coming around. He was both pleased and a bit pissed, he wanted to wake up, but he had a feeling he was going to feel like shit when he was finally freed from Hayden’s mind.

 

Hayden sat up; she had fallen asleep on the floor. “It felt so much more than just a dream,” she murmured as someone knocked on her door.

“Hayden? You okay, honey?” Whitney asked, even though she was the one without a child she was the most mothering out of the aunts.

“Fan-flipping-tastic!” she grumbled sarcastically.

“Well Christi decided you can come out now, I made you some dinner if you’re hungry,” she said before she walked away. She only knew because the _click click click_ of her heels began to slowly get quiet.

Hayden got up and brushed the dirt off of her and pushed her messy hair down. She felt like she owed it to Whitney to return her kindness back by dressing somewhat decent and acting ‘appropriately’ around her.

 

Nny groaned; his stomach and side were killing him. It was just a dream, but why did the pain still linger? “Was it that girl?” Nailbunny asked as he noticed Nny struggled to get up.

“It was worth it,” Nny mumbled as he finally managed to stand up, only to feel a crack in his rib.

“Maybe you should have been nicer to her,” Nailbunny suggested before he floated off away from him.

“Nicer?” Nny scoffed. He wanted nothing more than to be freed from Hayden’s mind. He wanted nothing more than to paint his wall with her blood.


	4. Chapter Three: Motivation

“Why do you seem so happy?” Samantha asked as she and Hayden walked down their street. Ever since the pair had left home, Hayden had been humming a song.

“Because I’m not sleeping!” Hayden replied excitedly as she gave her cousin a Cheshire-like smile.

Samantha appeared to be taken back by her cousin’s unexpected response as she furrowed her brows and turned to face her, “W-wha… Do you…do y-you fear sleep?” she stuttered out her question as she glanced shyly at her not-so-innocent cousin.

“No, I don’t ‘fear’ sleep, but I don’t seem to be overly fond of it either,” Hayden replied nonchalantly with a shrug as she used finger quotations when she said the word fear.

Samantha nodded as she tried to understand her cousin’s way of thinking for Hayden’s sake, “So you just have a mutual feeling towards sleep then, yes?” she asked hopefully as they walked past one of the usual hobos that lived on their street.

“Mother of all fuckers!” Hayden hissed in pain as she tripped and fell face first onto the ground. She slowly got up and brushed herself up. _Well, that’s gonna fucking bruise._

“Mama doesn’t like it when you cuss,” Samantha whispered quietly as she tugged on her cousin’s arm.

“Sorry, I’ll remember to bite my tongue and swallow it the next time I fall,” Hayden retorted as she rolled her eyes.

“Sorry,” she murmured as she gripped the sleeves of her jacket. “Are… Are you alright?” Samantha asked Hayden as she looked her over.

With an audible sigh, Hayden swallowed her anger towards her cousin, “Just dandy,” she let out an annoyed hum. From there on out, she decided that it was best that she ignored her cousin’s existence until they reached their destination, a local restaurant.

“Oh, my gosh!” Samantha gasped as her face paled in horror and tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes.

Hayden’s eyes lit up, curious at what the detectives were doing. “What happened here?” she asked the first officer that passed by them.

“Some sick bastard killed all these people last night,” the officer with the name tag Deputy Harkman explained rather quickly as he paused for a very brief chat.

“Oh, did they? Any lead on the person?” Hayden asked as she arched a dirty-blonde eyebrow.

“Yes…but that’s confidential, ma’am,” Deputy Harkman responded slowly as he allowed each word to seep in.

“Okay, thank you, sir,” Hayden replied curtly to him before she dragged a stunned Samantha away from the crime scene.

“What was that?” Samantha whispered harshly, as her blue eyes went wide with shock.

“We’ll come back later,” Hayden replied with a small shrug.

“Wait, what? Can you explain?” Samantha asked, dumbfounded at her cousin’s actions.

“I think that Nny guy was here, I wanted confirmation… We’ll know if he’s a suspect in a few hours,” Hayden replied coolly, her words were slightly tense as she spoke about the one man she despised to no end.

“Johnny? But he’s such a kind man! You can’t possibly mean little Tod’s neighbor!” Samantha gasped as she had trouble believing what her older cousin just accused someone of.

Hayden stopped walking, a smile formed on her face and looked down at her much smaller companion. “Funny, because I very much so do,” she reaffirmed her suspicion.

Samantha let out a nervous chuckle and kept repeating to herself that Hayden is family no matter how different she is. She smiled weakly up at her cousin as she fretfully fiddled with a honey-brown hair.

 

A few minutes eventually turned into a few hours and the two cousins were walking back towards the crime scene from earlier to do their own investigation. “You know you can leave and go back home, right?” Hayden asked with her hands in her coat pockets and her head angled at the ground.

Samantha tilted her head to the side and smiled, but it wasn’t a sincere smile she usually has plastered on her face, it was more of a ‘you-are-so-stupid’ smile, “I would take that offer and run back home, but you’re family and I’m worried about you. I can’t let you do this alone, Haydie,” she said as she called her cousin by her childhood nickname.

“Then don’t flip when your sanity breaks,” Hayden warned as she walked back inside the spot of the crime scene.

“I knew you were smart enough to take the hint,” Deputy Harkman said as he came from behind the kitchen with an eerie smile plastered on his face as his green eyes pierced into Hayden’s hazel eyes.

“Yes, well, I want to know what you know,” Hayden said in a monotone voice as she looked at a dismissed blood stained jacket she vaguely remembered a certain deputy had worn earlier before she turned to the deputy and arched an eyebrow at him. “You became a butcher in the past several hours since we last came?” she asked in a confused tone.

A deep chuckle escaped from the man, “I got a little hungry and, to be honest, I still am,” he said huskily as he bared his teeth at the two, which revealed his blood-stained teeth.

“Oh God!” Samantha gagged as she turned slightly green. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she moaned as she placed her hands on her knees and tried to steady her breathing.

“I have killed plenty of people in my life, but eating them? That is just _beyond_ sick and all kinds of wrong! You are some fucking psychotic cannibal! How fucked up in the head are you?! I mean, I’m pretty fucked up, but you’ve topped the fucking charts!” Hayden yelled as she placed a hand over her knife in her pocket. For her, the act of killing someone was necessary. To kill someone to eat? Unnecessary.

“You have quite the temper,” Deputy Harkman mused as amusement lit up his eyes, “Don’t worry, I’ll eat you last,” he declared. He didn’t give Sam or Hayden a moment’s notice as he lunged toward Samantha with a knife outstretched toward her. She barely had time to register his actions as she crumbled into his arms.

Hayden trembled with a newfound level of anger and disgust as she witnessed him kill her cousin. “You fuck with me, that’s okay. You fuck with my family, you call for suicide,” she growled.

“Let’s dance, Kitty,” he teased as he tossed the limp body of Samantha to the side.

Hayden winced when she heard the sound of her newly deceased cousin’s body slide across a table and fell on shattered glass with an audible crunch. “Well,” she began as she regained her composure, “sorry to disappoint Harkman, but I’m not really in the mood to dance, maybe ripping the skin from your bones, but no, I’m not dancing with a fucker like yourself,” she replied as she dodged his lunge toward her throat. Determination coursed through her body. She was going to kill him even if it was the last thing she did.

She pulled out her knife as Harkman picked up his abandoned knife. “A challenge?” he asked as he circled around her like she was prey. Something told her that he was used to his prey accepting that they were going to die. _How awful. He truly needs to die._

Harkman managed to slice at her leg and pin Hayden down all in a blink of an eye. “Go ahead! Kill me!” she yelled at him. _Funny, I was so ready to kill him and here I am, begging for him to end me. Fuck, I’m so pathetic._

Harkman paused for a second before he was suddenly ripped off of Hayden. She watched, wide-eyed, as Nny managed to grab hold of Harkman’s knife and quickly sliced his head almost clean off of his neck, leaving only a few remaining tendons and a little bit of skin connecting his body to his head, but the second he crumpled to the floor his head ripped off and rolled in front of Hayden. His empty, lifeless eyes stared up at Hayden in horror.

“I could have saved myself,” she grumbled as she refused to look up at Nny.

“Who said I was saving you?” Nny growled.

“Figured,” Hayden scoffed before her eyes traveled to the body of her broken cousin and she lost her composure for a minute. “Look, Nny, normally I wouldn’t mind fighting you to the death, but I need…I need to go home,” she muttered as she attempted to wipe her eyes clean.

Nny’s eyes widened in shock that she had just refused an opportunity to fight him. His eyes searched around the room as he looked for any evidence that would shake her up to refuse a chance to hurt him. His search stopped when he saw the once lively Samantha. “Next time I see you then,” he declared before he bolted out of the restaurant.

She swore she could hear him grumbling about that being one of his favorite restaurants and now he has to go and find somewhere else to eat at as he ran off.

 

Hayden was enjoying her four-cheese lasagna while Christina and Whitney paced around the house making phone calls in an attempt to locate Samantha when a knock on the door made them frantic. Christina, Samantha’s mother, ran towards the door and opened it without hesitating. She let out an alarmed cry that pierced Hayden’s heart as she was told the terrible news.

“You killed my daughter you wretched monster!” Christina yelled as she turned toward Hayden who was busy trying to ignore her.

“Christi, please, sister, you’re just upset! You have no right to blame your older sister’s daughter!” she declared as she enveloped Hayden in a protective hug.

Hayden lowered her head and wished to only disappear as she picked up her dish and placed it in the sink. All the while, her aunts were arguing over how innocent Hayden really was before they began to finally cry over Samantha’s death.

The second Hayden made it to her room she closed her door and locked it. She then knelt down and brought her knees up to her body and rested her head on them and silently cried. Nny ruined her one chance of ever avenging her cousin’s death by killing that man. She may not have been close with her cousin in the last couple of years in her life, but they were family. She would have rather died than not be able to ever avenge her death.

She narrowed her eyes; she was going to end Nny if it was the last thing she ever did. He was going to pay for not letting her avenge her younger cousin who she had admired for her open and optimistic personality.


	5. Chapter Four: Won't Go Quietly

Nny watched Hayden as she paced back and forth on the cloud they were both on with lazy eyes. “…I will kill you a – are you listening to me Johnny C.?” Hayden screamed that last part in anger as she slapped him across the face.

She had fallen asleep on purpose in order to meet up with him as he proved to be impossible to find in the waking world. Here she was trying to express her anger, and the bastard wasn’t even listening to her. _Figures._

He stood up and glared at her before he wiped away the blood on his lip with the back of his palm, “Oh yes,” he hissed as his eyes glared daggers into hers. “It’s not like I CAN’T listen to you!” he spat before he slumped back down on Hayden’s dream-cloud couch that he had created.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it, alright! You hate me almost as much as I hate you!” Hayden growled as she jumped off of her dream-cloud and landed with a soft thud on the velvet moss that grew by a pond.

Nny normally would have chosen to stay on the cloud, but he had followed Hayden due to him being left alone with both Mayzel and Azreiel. “Why don’t you try to kill me?” he asked. After all the ranting that she had done, she had yet to make a strike at him besides when she had slapped him. To put it lightly, he was very confused.

“You would let me?” Hayden asked in amusement as she flashed Nny a twisted smirk and then pulled out a jagged knife from thin air – one of the many pros of fighting through their mind link was that she wasn’t limited to what she physically had on her, she could create whatever she wanted from just imagining it. She wasted no time as she made a mad dash toward Nny, who quickly dodged her attack with a swift leap to the left.

Nny formed his own weapons – a con to the mind link was that both were able to create whatever they desired – he had created a weapon very similar to the one the he killed the interviewer from a while ago with. “A part of me would say keep dreaming, but I think you need to stop dreaming,” he retorted.

Hayden managed to rip open the flesh on Nny’s left arm. To both of their amazement, no pain appeared to course through his body, nor was there any blood. “No that’s no fun,” she pouted slightly in annoyance. Despite not being able to feel any pain, Nny wanted revenge for her marring his body. He gripped his weapon tightly as he pierced it deeply into her back and dragged it slowly down.

With the lack of pain in their dreamlike world, they couldn’t fully grasp the understanding of their limits, which made it a bit more difficult to tell when it was time to say ‘stop.’ To Hayden, stopping meant that she lost a piece of her sanity to the man named Johnny C. At this exact moment, Nny had dug his knife deep inside of her stomach. In fury, she let out a scream as she repeatedly gave him shallow cuts wherever she could reach.

A pool had surrounded them, it made the marshy grass stain red and grow slick from the dark substance that rapidly ran down their bodies from their wounds which slightly puzzled her, they hadn’t started bleeding the first time. _This is far enough!_ Hayden’s clarity screamed at her but with an inhumane scream she plunged the knife deep into his arm.

“Had enough, Johnny?” Hayden spat as her eyes narrowed at him.

Nny didn’t respond audibly; instead, he slammed his knife into Hayden’s side and twisted it around. She let out a gasp in shock and stumbled back. She felt the knife twist around inside of her. _What is going on?_

The blood quickly faded away and almost gave the illusion that the fight had never happened. But the scars they bared remained forever etched on their bodies – in a dream and in reality.

Hayden let out a ragged cough before she slipped back to reality, which left Nny alone until she fully woke up. With a loud curse from Nny, he kicked the ground.

 

“Hayden? Hayden can you hear me?” Hayden heard someone say her name…were they yelling? She couldn’t tell, the blood was rushing in her ears…or was that her heartbeat. She staggered to her feet but collapsed onto her hands and knees.

People were by her side but all she could see were their shoes – 2 pairs of feet, one on each of her side. “Hayden!” it felt like they were yelling, but it sounded more like she was underwater.

“Hold on! We’re calling the ambulance!” someone familiar said as she fully collapsed onto the ground where she eventually passed out from the pain.

 

Nny opened his eyes; his body was killing him – especially his arm, which was throbbing. He struggled up and looked at it. His arm had two holes, both on even different sides but no blood came out. As soon as he touched it, it was already healing back.

“What…?” He mumbled out loud. Ever since he met Hayden he had been seeing some pretty crazy stuff, but this? This topped the charts in his opinion.

He slowly started to remember when they first fought in her mind, he woke up still in pain…he couldn’t help but wonder if their mental connection was dwindling. A slow smile of relief formed on his face as he imagined being free from her mental grasp.

 

Hayden woke up in a room so bright and white that it literally hurt her to open her eyes. “What?” she groaned as she covered her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Hayden,” Whitney gasped and quickly approached her, “Y-you’re in the hospital,” she said as she worriedly looked down at her.

“Why?” Hayden asked as she scrunched her face up in confusion.

“Well…” Whitney began slowly, “Christi and I found you bleeding in your room… We had no idea what had happened! We called the ambulance and you just collapsed!” she explained as she slowly began to tear up.

“But I’m fine now…right?” Hayden asked slowly as she processed what her aunt had just told her.

“Y-yes…” Whitney stuttered as she looked down at the ground.

“What?” Hayden asked suspiciously as she arched an eyebrow.

“You’re going back to New York.  Whitney and I agreed it’s too much trouble to look after you, so you’re going back to live with your mom,” Christi said as she got up from where she sat and stood next to Whitney. Hayden could tell from the look in Christi’s eyes that she still blamed her for Samantha’s death, and she didn’t blame her, she did too.

Hayden stared up at Christi and nodded, “Fair enough,” she muttered before she closed her eyes. “So, when do I leave?” she asked with a sigh.

“As soon as you are allowed to leave the hospital we’re putting you on the first plane back to New York,” Christi answered.

“Oh?” Hayden said but it came out more like a question.

 

“What good will come out of killing Hayden?” Nailbunny asked Nny.

“My mind back,” Nny grumbled as he slipped his jacket on.

“Yes, but-”

Nny didn’t hear him continue speaking as he walked out the door to go find Hayden; he wanted to end it all. He wanted to end her. He decided the best place to search for her was her house. It didn’t take Squee much convincing to give him Samantha’s address, all he had to say was that he ‘wanted to give the family his condolences.’ Of course, he might after he relieved them of the spawn that was Hayden.

When he finally arrived at her house, he walked into the vacant home. It was easy to tell which room she had stayed in, it was the only room that was empty and bare – obviously, the guest bedroom. Something didn’t feel right, though. It felt too empty.

Had he finally run out of time to kill her? He approached the desk to find a note on it signed for him. Curious at what could be in it, he opened it and began to read.

_Dear Johnny,_

_As you see, we never got to end our game. Maybe one day we will, but not anytime soon. I’m going back home and will stay there until I can leave. No matter how long I have to wait, I will return, and we will finish this game of ours. Please do me a favor and stay alive until then, I want to be the one to kill you._

_Sincerely, Hayden Williams_

Nny crumbled up the paper and slammed his knife onto the table. He had missed her, and as long as she was alive, he was still going to succumb to her dreams. “Dammit!” he yelled out in frustration.

 

Hayden smiled, for the first time in a long time, she felt healthy…almost. She closed her eyes and hummed softly, she felt like the future held a great promise for her. She no longer had to worry about Nny save for when she dreamed, and she was also no longer chained to the disgusting state of California. She was going home to New York. She was going home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear, I skimmed the prologue and it had promise, so I thought I could just edit it and put it on here but then I started reading more and it just quickly started going downhill with no signs of uphills. If I could rewrite this (beyond just editing it) I 10/10 would, but I've already posted it online once so I don't feel it's right to make major changes to it. I have a sequel to it that I may post on here (don't worry, 13/14 year old me didn't write it, 16/17 year old me wrote it so it makes much more sense and actually has a plot). I am kind of upset with the ending, as I was editing this chapter I kept thinking to myself "Why?" and "I thought that would make a great ending??"
> 
> Thank you for reading this mess!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive Criticism is welcomed! I will update every Monday at no specific time!  
> Apparently, when I first wrote this, I didn't know the actual definition of 'insidious?' No need to point that out, I have now realized my error cx  
> Some pronunciations: Azreiel = (G)Az-rey-elle, Mayzel = May-zelle  
> I noticed on Tumblr that there is a complete lack of JTHM imagine blogs, so I decided to make a blog that's dedicated to that (and a few other fandoms)! Check it out? https://yourchimerawrites.tumblr.com/


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